There it was for the taking, a clear path to the hoop for a dunk early in the second half Tuesday night. Instead, Baylor's 6-8 reigning national player of the year pulled back and rolled the ball off her fingertips for an easy bucket.

"One more dribble," Griner said. "One more dribble, I could have dunked it."

Griner still put on a show for the record crowd at Tudor Fieldhouse, finishing with a season-high 35 points, nine rebounds and four blocks to lead third-ranked Baylor to an 89-49 victory over Rice.

Griner made things look easy in her first game in Houston since her senior season at Nimitz in 2009. She made 16 of 19 field-goal attempts, often towering over double teams by the undersized and overmatched Owls, in 22 minutes.

"We just had no answer for them inside," Rice coach Greg Williams said. "We let them get too deep, too good position, and our resistance was not nearly what it needs to be."

Baylor used its size advantage to score 50 points in the paint. The Lady Bears shot a season-high 67.7 percent.

"There was no sense in any of them taking jump shots when you can get as deep as you wanted in there," Baylor coach Kim Mulkey said.

Rice didn't do itself any favors, missing 19 of its first 21 shots and finishing at 23.1 percent. Jessica Kuster led the Owls with 18 points and 13 rebounds, Christal Porter had 11 points, and Zoe Rogers had 10 points.

The crowd of 2,318 was the largest for a women's game at Tudor Fieldhouse and the most for a women's game at Rice since the Owls upset No. 16 Hawaii at Autry Court in 1998.

Baylor was the highest-ranked opponent to visit Rice since No. 1 Texas in 1987.Griner played in front of several family members, including her mother, former Nimitz teammates and a pro-Baylor crowd. She wowed the crowd in pre-game warmups with a handful of dunks.

"It definitely felt good being back in Houston playing again," said Griner, who sat on the bench the final 12 minutes as Baylor led by as many as 43 points. "Any time my mom is in the crowd, I think I have a really good game."